Dark Water
by Lil-Randomer
Summary: When 6 friends plan to prank a bully things don't go exactly as planned. When your life gets turned upside down who do you turn to? Friends, Lovers, Drama, Murderers? OC
1. Beginning

**Name:** Cassie Ann Matthews  
****Hometown:****Oregon  
****Gender:****** Female**  
****Race:**** White. ****Ethnicity:**** American  
****Age:****** 16**

****Height:****** 5'7**

****Fluent Language(s): ******English &amp; French.**  
****Sexual Orientation:******Straight****. ** **Relationship Status:** Taken  
****Employment:**** Student.  
****Living Arrangement:**** Lives with her dad  
**Looks:** Long brown hair, Bright Blue eyes, very tall and Athletic body

* * *

The wooden tables were cold but not as cold as the stare we were receiving from the detectives interviewing us. Rocky moved his hand onto mine in comfort but I was too numb too feel it, this situation could have been avoided but of course nothing is that simple. I heard the detective sigh and said "Cassie, tell me what happened leading up to you coming here" he raised his hands motioning to the police station we were all currently in.

I looked down at my dirt covered hands and breathed deeply, ready to begin the story of which will always be burned into my memory…

I was looking at the menu board in Figaro's trying to decide whether I should have a slice of pizza or not when I heard the hyper scream of "CASSIE" I turned quickly to see my 2 best friends Marty &amp; Clyde and Boyfriend Rocky looking at me as well as the rest of the population in Figaro's.

"Thanks for that Martini" I mused rolling my eyes at the crazy boy, Marty takes some getting used to but the one thing I do know about him is he doesn't let you in his life easily but once you're in he will be crazy protective.

I felt Rocky's arm slide across my shoulder and his lips against my temple "Hey Cass, How did you get here so quick?" I looked at Clyde who I've known since we were in diapers, I smirked and answered "I faked cramps" making his face screw up in disgust. I laughed knowing Clyde was uncomfortable about woman problems seeing as he has 2 gay dads and hasn't really been educated, something Marty loves to tease him about on a daily basis.

I felt Rocky shift next to me "are we gonna get something I'm starving" he asked us pulling out his wallet "do you want anything babe?" he offered "No thanks I'm on a diet" I replied patting my stomach making Marty grab my stomach with both hands and shake me a little "you don't need to diet Cass, I can nearly put both of my hands around you. Rocky give me a hand!" before I knew what was happening both Marty and Rocky were tickling my sides making me squeal in amusement. The more I tried to get them to stop the more they continued.

The boys all soon got their pizza and we walked out of Figaro's. I looked at rocky when he grabbed my hand and couldn't help but laugh as he had his bag on his head.

"Hey, you know that fat kid, George, who they keep holding back from graduating middle school?" we all nodded at Rocky when he asked us this.

"Yeah, I hate that guy" Marty replied nonchalantly looking at Rocky.

"He beat up Sam" We all looked shocked at this confession. Poor Sammy that boy is like a little brother to all of us.

"No".

"Hey, you know when we were at Rollins, that crazy kid chased me across the field and cracked my head open with a bat" Clyde mumbled making us laugh, Marty teasingly ruffled Clyde's head saying "Finally, an explanation".

"Yeah, anyway...He's a real pig" Clyde mumbled back to us.

"He's always stating at me, it's kind of creepy" I moaned with a pout on my lips making them all look at me and smile.

"It's because he has a crush on you" Clyde teased knowing I hated the fact that the kid liked me, I especially disliked it now I know he's beating up Sam.

"eurghhhh" I retorted sticking my tongue out childishly making him shake his head at me. I turned and took a bite out of Rocky's pizza causing him to playfully smacking my nose.

Marty turned to Rocky and stated "I say we smoke that ham" this led to a debate about what they should do to the 'Pig' this meaning George.

"Yeah? Make some ham sandwiches?"

"Pork chop-ify him. Spam-icize him".

"Link sausage-ize him!"

"Squeal, piggy! Squeal!" Marty shouted loudly making me jump and push him and him in turn throwing his arm around my shoulder"

"No, screw that guy" Clyde mumbled with a bit of venom in his voice which shocked me but Clyde has had his fair share of bullying.

"You'd really like to do that, wouldn't you, Clyde?" Marty jested, Rocky snorted at this and claimed "You're projecting, Marty" "Projecting?" I pushed Marty's arm off my shoulder so I could explain to him "That's when you say something, that someone else...You say that they want to do, when you're the one who wants to do it" this made Clyde and Rocky snicker as Marty looked from me and smirked at Rocky.

"No, no, no. That's good.

That's good.

Hold up, Rocky. Back up. I got something for you.

Just a little..." Marty grabbed Rocky's arm stopping him from walking a put his hand in his pocket searching for something but instead of taking something out he punched Rocky hard in the shoulder causing us to laugh.

"Oh, you son of a bitch!" Rocky exclaimed bending over and holding his arm in pain, I couldn't help at laugh at Marty's 'innocent' face as he put his hands up in surrender and said "I was just projecting"

"Oh, you asshole!"

"Haha he got you good babe" I laughed moving over to him to rub his arm, he looked down to me and asked "You going with Clyde?" I nodded my head and explained "Yeah I'm tutoring him in math. Bye" I kissed him and ran to catch up with Clyde and Marty.

* * *

**_Rocky_**

I walked to sam's school with a smile and trying to wipe Cassie's lipstick off my face. I saw Sam sat on the step and waiting for me, I looked at his face which was still covered in bruises. That little fatty was going to get it we just needed a plan.

"Hey" I shouted throwing my bag on the step, "Get beat up today?" I said picking the bag back up. Sammy looked at me not amused

"See any new scars?" I looked but couldn't see anything but I still felt pissed every time I see his face covered in bruises.

"Got any more gum?" he shook his head smirking "I'm chewing the whole pack. Why, you want some?" still smirking he pulled some out of his mouth and looked at me wondering if I'd eat it. I took it from him and chucked it in my mouth of course I was gonna fucking eat it.

"Tasty"

We walked home playing the game we always play 'would you rather'.

"Ok. Jennifer Lopez or the girl who sits behind you in school?" I laughed thinking about the girl who sits behind me at school, Judy she had the biggest glasses and no figure. "J. Lo"

"OK, I think I got one. Tie him to a tree, pour some honey on his face, and leave him there all day and night" I smiled thinking of how good an idea was but Sam didn't seem so pleased.

"Why?" he asked looking at me confused..

"It's for the bugs, so they'd get on him and bite him" he still didn't look very happy and disappointed.

"No, we can't do that" his shook his head in sadness.

"Why not?"

"Well, what if a bear came?" any excuse to not get back his bully and Sam thinks of it, its like he doesn't even want to get him back.

"Shut up" I pushed him and ruffled his hair, its times like these he reminds me that he's still a kid.

We stopped walking and just looked out into the sky and took everything in, I heard Sam sigh beside me.

"You know, if we hurt him, we'd be just as bad as him" he was right and I knew it but seeing your little brother in pain was not something I could handle.

"So we need to hurt him without really hurting him" I really wanted Sammy to confront this and not be a pussy about it but I don't think he would stand up for himself.

"I mean, if you could think of something like that, then..." he trailed off.

"Then what?"

"I don't know" he answered sounding upset again, but I think I had a plan to hurt him but not physically and I had the perfect girl to help me.

"All right, Heather Locklear or Shannen Doherty?" I asked him throwing my bag in front of me. "Uhh Don't know who Heather Locklear is" . I looked at him shocked "You don't...? Dude!" Sam laughed at me looking like himself again. Now to get home and put this plan together and the hardest part will be persuade a certain someone.

* * *

**_Cassie_**

I had just gotten home from clyde's and walked into my house I wasn't expecting a upbeat father in the living room "dad" I asked quietly as he was usually at work by now or drunk. He barely lifted his head up to talk to me it had been like this for years now. Thing is we used to be this big shot family until my mom found out my dad had cheated on her but also that she had cheated on him too, she also had a DNA test done on me and my little brother it turns out I'm dad's kid but Noah wasn't so she took Noah and left.

"Oh it's you" he said in a slightly happy but still unpleasant voice we hadn't gotten on since then everything just seemed to fall apart but we still lived a lavish lifestyle he wore expensive suits and I had what ever I wanted as long as we didn't have to talk about it.

"Uhh what are you doing here" I asked timidly still very confused why absentee father was happy.

"Well Cassie I live here too if you didn't notice plus we have a dinner reservation to get to" he told me when I looked at him blankly he sighed and explained a little more forcefully "you and I are going out to dinner with a business partner, so go and get dress tidy"

"I cant go i'm meeting Rocky and Marty soon" not that he looked like he cared as his shook his head.

"No not tonight now go get dressed, I don't know why you hang around with those boys anyway they're bad influences" I shook my head and walked to my bedroom and thought about the day I met Rocky Merrick.

I smoothed out my short shorts and top, it was milly's birthday today me and Noah had been invited to go to her party. I held Noah's hand as we walked to the house that had all the pink balloons and load music blaring. I knocked on the door and Milly answered.

"Cassie! Noah" she shouted and launched herself at me, Noah gave her the present we had both picked out and ran out to the bouncy castle. I was still stuck at the door with milly wrapped around me.

"Happy Birthday Mills" I told her trying to pry her off me but it wasn't helping, I was lucky Milly's mom Jenny came to help me.

"Come on Milly lets introduce Cassie to some people" Jenny lead me outside by my shoulders we hadn't been in the neighbourhood that long so I didn't know many people.

Milly ran outside and grabbed two boys, well one was a teen and the other was Milly's age. "Rocky, Sam this is Cassie and her little brother is the one over on the bouncy castle with ice cream everywhere" I looked at her confused but soon saw what she was talking about my little brother had managed to fill himself up with ice cream but has also managed to cover himself in it.

"Damn!" I muttered the boy had only been here 5 minutes he definitely works fast. I heard a laugh from the teen in front of me and looked up to see a good looking face.

"Hey i'm Rocky" he told me smiling and blushing a little. "Little brothers ey" he laughed ruffling Sam's hair who I guessed was his little brother.

"Yeah can't live with them..." I trailed off "...And you can't live without them" he picked up where I stopped. His smile never faltered and I liked that.

From then on me and Rocky were inseparable he introduced me to Marty but I already knew Clyde as our mothers grew up together. Rocky had been with me through everything like my mom running away, Noah being my half brother, my suicide attempts and Drugs &amp; Alcohol but he never seemed like it bothered him and I always wondered why until the day he told me that he was in love with him and I guess I was always in love with him too.

"Cassie! Are you ready or not!" I heard my dad or Paul as I call him now shout to me.

"Nearly" I called back looking at my outfit in the mirror I think It was okay I mean he never said it was anything important. I was wearing my peach colored leather jacket, a black ruffled button up, ripped skinny jeans and black heels, I left my hair straight and had smokey eye make up on. I walked down to where my dad was waiting for me in his suit and he looked like he had made more of an effort than usual.

"Great. Lets go" he said we got into his BMW and drove away to 'Grazie' which was an up scale restaurant we walked inside to the maître d

"Hi we're with the Brooklands party" Paul said in his upper class voice like he never slummed it before the drunken bastard.

"Ah yes sir the party of 6" I looked at my dad confused, a party of 6 meant that 4 more people were going to be there so why did I need to be here. The maître d lead us to the table which held my dads boss, a upper class woman, man and boy who looked my age.

" Hello everyone I hope we're not late" everyone started laughing in that snotty laugh all those posh people do. I know were supposedly high class but we're not the snotty kind.

"No Paul you are exactly on time just how we like it and this must be Cassie your beautiful daughter and what a beauty she is. Hi i'm Sharon Brookfied hopefully a new partner of your fathers" ok but this still doesn't explain why I am here usually Paul would just leave me at home and let me do what I want.

"Hi i'm Tyler" I heard a voice next to me say I turned to see the charming looking boy but he's got nothing on Rocky. He pulls out the seat next to him and I see everyone staring at us like something special was happening.

"Thanks" I took off my jacket and sat down next to Tyler who proceeded to ask me load of questions about myself while my dad was talking to his boss and 'hopeful' new business parter and her husband. I could see my dad looking at me so I started to listen to what they we're saying.

"So it's settled then my company will join yours and we'll split the profits and I'll be glad to see Cassie and Tyler get a lot closer." Sharon said very chirpy, I had no idea what she was on about.

"Um excuse me?" I asked her, she smiled at me like I was being silly and I felt my dad nudge me "Yes Cassie. Sharon wishes for you and Tyler to be together for this deal to go through" my dad said in a chirpy/ aggressive voice. "Don't ruin this for me" he whispered dangerously.

I jumped out of my seat and could feel myself getting angry this was borderline crazy he was trying to sell me of to some chirpy lady and her son!

"I can't believe you dad you know I love Rocky and I can't believe you would actually do this!" I grabbed my jacket on pulled it on as I stomped towards the door, I could see people staring at me as I slammed the door open. I felt a strong hand around my arm and pulled me back "I can not believe what you did inside, you've embarrassed me in front of my boss and colleagues" dad shouted at me whilst shaking me.

"Me?! You nearly just sold me off to someone I mean I can't believe you stooped so low, now I know why mom left you!" I shouted but was abruptly cut off by my dad slapping me and screaming "Shut up Karen"

I looked at him with tears in my eyes and holding my cheek "i'm not her dad, i'm not mom" I whispered to him and caught a taxi to where Rocky was.

The taxi pulled up on the top of the water fall and I paid him the money and left still wiping the tears away. I saw Marty's car on the cliff where it always was when we hung out and started walking to it.

I could see all the guys sitting in the car smoking and tapped on the passenger side window where Rocky was sitting, All the guys jumped and Rocky opened the door opened to which Marty and Rocky wolf whistled at me until they realised I was crying, they all jumped out of the car and asked what was wrong, I felt a hand on my cheek and surprisingly saw it was Marty who had spotted the hand print. I told them all about the dinner to which they all looked pissed and Marty seemed as angry as Rocky. When the story was told we all sat back in the car, I sat on Rocky's lap and cuddled into him.

"Back to what we were saying I think it's a totally wild plan" Marty said sounding excited. I sat up and looked at Rocky who was looking a little nervous.

"What plan" I asked him confused. He was still looking very nervous which now got me a little suspicious.

"Don't be mad ok Cass, It's also the only plan Sam would agree to"Rocky told me with his hands up to a surrender. Rocky then told me the 'plan' but said the only way George would go for it was because he had and I quoted "A huge one for me" Yeah thanks.

"He's just a little fucking Gandhi, isn't he?" Marty muttered making us all laugh.

"Like a fucking white Martin Luther King. All we need now is a boat" Rocky told us, I wanted nothing to do with this plan.

"Hey, my neighbour's got a boat in her back yard that she never uses" Clyde to us making me frown at him in surprise.

"Does that mean you're in?" I asked him still surprised.

"Do you actually think he'll go for it?" I shook my head this plan had bad written all over it.

"Oh, please. George'll get a hard-on as soon as he picks up the phone" Marty laughed and winked at me" Cass will throw on some of that "sweet girl" charm of hers. Kid's desperate. Stupid. It's human nature"

"All I know is, is I'm getting a hard-on just thinking about it" Rocky said feeling up my side smirking this is where Marty would usually say something dirty but he just looked at Rocky's hand angrily which really shocked me.

"Your mom don't need the car Saturday, does she?"

"The only thing my mom needs on Saturdays is Valium" Marty told us when snapped out of whatever trance he was in.

"What do you think, Clyde? Do we want to give Georgie Porgie a little taste of his own medicine? Huh?" Rocky asked looking back to Clyde who still looked like he was still ok with the plan. "Be some good, clean fun, don't you think?" "Yeah, he deserves it, doesn't he?" I was still disappointed in how excited Clyde seemed he was supposed to be the sensible one out of all of us.

"If there's one thing that can't be argued, it's that that fat freak deserves whatever he's got coming to him" I kind of agreed with Marty but surely there was a better way than this. Rocky passed me the weed and I took a puff then passed it to Marty who held it out to Clyde. "Dude, what'd I tell you?" I've got to admit i'm proud of Clyde, Mary's always trying to make him do stuff he doesn't want to do but he sticks by himself and doesn't let Marty pressure him.

"You don't smoke herb" Marty said in a flat tone knowing that Clyde didn't want it.

"Yeah, so get it out of my face" I could feel Rocky laughing quietly under me and I had a smirk on my face too. "Faggot" Marty said to us quietly knowing it would piss off or upset Clyde but it pisses me off too."For fuck sake Marty!" I shouted, glaring at him. I saw him move the mirror so he could look at Clyde

"Clyde-o, I'm just fucking with you. You're not a faggot, all right? OK?" Clyde still didn't seem happy with this but Marty did seem sincere which is weird because he never usually cares what he says. "Fist bump? Fist bump?" Clyde reluctantly fist bumped with Marty and I smiled knowing that they'll be ok in like 5 minutes, they always were. "OK, zero kilter. Besides, I like your dads, Clyde. I never knew any homosexual men personally until I met them. They're not so bad" this was getting weirder by the minute Marty never really says anything nice about anyone.

"Don't you think so, Rocky?" Marty said to Rocky in a camp voice, Ah there it was I knew he couldn't be polite forever he'd probably burst. I glared at Marty again as Clyde got out of the car and Rocky followed him but I stayed in the car with Marty so I could let those two talk and I bash some common courtesy in Martini. "

Why do you do it Marty?" I asked him softly looking at him through my lashes. I saw him shrug his shoulders and honestly I don't think even he knows why he does it. It was quite for a few minutes until I heard Marty clear his throat.

"So where are you staying tonight, I mean you don't want to go back near your dad. I don't want you to go back to your dad's its not safe for you anymore" I snorted my family dynamic wasn't perfect but it was all that I had.

"why do you care?" I whispered pulling my jacket closer and looking at Rocky and Clyde who were deep in conversation. I felt Marty touch my arm where my dad had grabbed me, making me flinch a little.

"I've always cared about you, definitely more than I care for others. I mean I actually like spending time with you" Lately Marty has been saying more caring things to me and being more protective, I don't know what's gotten into him. I heard the car door open and saw the boys get in, Marty quickly took his arm away from me and turned to Clyde and apologized. I looked at Rocky and raised my eyebrow to which he just nodded signalling that Clyde was fine now.

"So do you wanna stay and mine tonight, I don't want you around your dad tonight. My mom will understand" funny both Marty and Rocky said the same thing I guess its not a great idea to be home tonight, I just nodded sadly. I looked a Marty "Can we go to my place so I can pick up some clothes?" he just gave me a sad smile and nodded.

We drove back to my house in complete silence, we had pulled up to my drive but none of us moved. I breathed in a deep breath and got out of the car to which all 3 boys did too. I turned to look at them "What are you doing?" "you didn't think we were going to let you go in there alone, did you?" Clyde told me smirking, Rocky grabbed my hand and led me to the front door. I opened the door and everything was the same as before we left for dinner but that didn't mean he wasn't here. "DAD?" I shouted around but there was no answer "I guess he's still not here, Come on".

I walked to my room and turn on the lights, nothing had changed he hasn't been here. I walked to my dresser and picked out some clothes, pyjamas, make up and other necessities and put them in my overnight bag. I turned around to see the guys looking at different aspects of my room, Clyde was looking at my photos, Rocky was looking at my CDs and Marty was rifling through my underwear drawer. "Marty!" I screamed at him "Put those down" he had picked up probably the raunchiest bra and panties I had.

Clyde and Rocky had turn around at his point and both had they're eyebrows raised. "Dude!" Rocky said in a low tone but didn't sound angry, more amused if anything. Marty dropped them back in the draw and walked away. Rocky made his was over to me "So why have I never seen those" he asked with a smirk on his face. I smacked his shoulder playfully and walked back out of the room.

Again we were back in the car this time we were all heading to Rocky's. The ride wasn't long because Rocky doesn't live that far from me, Mary's the only one who lives further away and that's because he lives in a trailer park.

"Come on lets get inside and put the plan into action" Rocky said excitedly, we all went in the house and Mr and Mrs Merrick were sat at the kitchen table. "Hey mom" Rocky shouted still very hyper, Rocky's mom Amanda looked up at us "Hi boys and Cassie" her smile soon faded when she saw the look and hand print on my face. Rocky nodded at us to go through to his bedroom, well his and Sam's. We walked through the door and there was Sam sitting on his bed watching TV.

"Hey Sammy" I said quietly as I walked to Rocky's bed and lay down on it. I could hear rocky and his mom coming closer to the room so I sat up knowing she'd probably try and comfort me. "Oh Cassie you can stay here as long as you need sweetpea. Rocky just told me what happened" Amanda sat by my side and handed me a cold ice pack for my face. I smiled at her she was so nice, better than my own mom "Thanks" Amanda gave me a smile hug and pointed at the boys "you boys better be nice to her, you hear!" I smiled and poked my tongue out at them. As soon as Amanda left the room all the boys tackled me to the bed and started tickling. "Ok Ok get of me please" I tried to say through my laughter.

They all sat up and went back to where they were sitting, Rocky handed me the phone "What?" I asked him confused. "Its time to get the plan into action" he told me. I jumped of the bed "No way I am not doing this" I started pacing around the room. "Come on Cass your the only one he would trust enough to go boating with us" Rocky told me desperate, I shook my head but when I looked at Sam he looked so sad and I had no choice.

"Ok but if this goes wrong I am not taking the blame for it" i'm in enough trouble with my dad as it is!" they all cheered as soon as I said I would do it, i'm not happy with my choice but Sam is like my little brother. Rocky dialled the number for me and I took a deep breath and waited.

"Hello? George?"

"Hello?"

"Hey, hey. This is Cassie Matthews" I told him whilst the guys all gave me a thumbs up.

"Ohh… H...Hey Cassie" I smiled hearing him sound nervous, I could see Marty mouthing 'Flirt with him' and cringed a little.

"I got your number off the call list. Is that OK?" I told him putting on a little cute voice and internally hating myself.

"Yeah that fine" George said sounding shocked that I was actually calling him.

"Great. Well, what I wanted to call you about was..." I stopped as I really didn't know what to say, nobody had told me the exact details. I could see rocky writing on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

"Is that I'm inviting you to... To a party for Sam. Now, I know that you two have been having some trouble lately. But you know what? He's always talking about how cool you are. And it would really mean a lot to us if you could come"

"What's the party for?"

"It's his birthday. It's on Saturday at noon" I told him sounding like I wanted him to come, I could see the guys listening on the other phone and Marty giving me hand gestures.

"Yeah I'd love to come. I'll have to ask my mom to drive me though" I could hear Marty giving me a silent cheer so I through a ball at him which I found on the ground.

"I can pick you up if you'd like" emphasising the 'I' so he'll think its just me picking him up.

"Where is it?"

"We're going on a boating trip. You like boating?"

"Oh cool I've been boating before it was really cool" I heard him take in big breath when I said boating it was like he was scared but didn't want to say no.

"Yeah, awesome. So the only thing that I can really ask you to do, is not tell too many people. Because we didn't really invite a lot of people, and...And, you know, everyone knows everybody in this town.

And you tell your parents, parents will tell other parents, and those parents will tell their kids. And pretty soon everyone who didn't get invited Will be sitting at home, crying. We don't want that, do we?"

"No I wont tell anyone if you done want me to" it made me a little sad that this boy would probably be willing to do anything I said.

"There you go. So do you want me to pick you up at noon?"

"Yeah great!." I feel like a horrible person doing this but it was for Sam that's all I have to think about.

"Awesome! So I will see you at noon, George. Have a great day. Bye" as soon as I put the phone down I sighed and dropped onto the bed. I felt Rocky put his arm around me.

"Oh, God" Marty started laughing like the cat who got the cream, he really is enjoying this and i'm starting to wonder who he's doing this for Sam or Himself.

"What did he say?" Sammy asked me quietly, I opened my eyes and looked at him. "He said he would love to go" everyone started cheering and I felt Rocky pat my shoulders and whispered to me "I knew you could do it" way to make me feel better Rock.

"He'd love to go. Oh, I'd love to go" Marty started making inappropriate sexual movements with the phone. "I'd love to... If you could just... I'd love, love, love to go. Oh, I'd love to go! Come here" Marty got up and grabbed me and Sam then through us on the bed and started ticking us

"Say uncle." he carried on tickling me and then Rocky and Clyde joined in at this point me and Sam had no choice.

"Uncle"

"Uncle who?"

"Uncle Martini!" we both shouted still laughing.

* * *

First Chapter in the story hope you liked it, i will be sticking to the storyline but straying off a bit :)


	2. Car Journey & Drinking

I woke up in the morning wondering where I was, I turned to see Rocky's sleeping face and smiled to myself _he's so cute. _I sat up and saw Sammy was still asleep so I quickly put my clothes on and crept out of the room and down the hall, I could smell coffee and pancakes as I stepped into the kitchen Mr and Mrs Merrick stopped what they were doing and looked at me.

"Good Morning Mr and Mrs Merrick" I said sitting down at the round family table where a pile of pancakes and a glass of orange juice were quickly put in front of me, I smiled in thanks and began to eat even though I had no appetite as I thought of yesterday. Mr Merrick looked over the top of his paper and smiled at me "Now Cassie you know to call us John and Marie" I nodded and carried on eating I saw Marie and John swap worried looks they had been doing this a lot with me since my family turned shit.

I stood and put my plate in the sink and turned "Thanks for breakfast but I've got to go home now" I started walking to the door when Marie stopped me with a troubled look on her face "Do you think that's wise?" she asked upset, I looked at her for a while and sighed "Probably not but I can't run away forever" I could still see that Marie was distressed at the thought of me going back to my house with the possibility of me getting hurt again, John put his paper down and grabbed his keys " Come on Cassie I'll give you a ride home" he said giving Marie a look but I couldn't make out what it was.

The car journey was awkward and silent it felt like forever before I was home and I only lie a couple of blocks away. John pulled up outside my house, I looked up at my house uneasy but I knew I had to go in "Do you need me to come in?" John asked quietly seeming to know my inner turmoil, I shook my head and opened the door to get out I turned around to thank John who was giving me a serious look "Call me if anything happens, I'll come straight back" I smiled in appreciation

Walking up to the front door I could see lights on in the house and a nervous streak ran straight through me. I opened the door quietly and walked in hoping I could get in and out without being seen. "Cassie?" I ran straight to my room and slammed the door I couldn't handle seeing him right now. I walked to my wardrobe and grabbed my red short shorts and black tank top, I put them on the bed whilst I put on my swimsuit. I walked to my dresser and started applying make up and doing my hair, the hand print on my face was no longer visible but I knew it was there. I turn to my alarm clock and saw it was close to noon and as good timing would have it I heard a beep of a car and quickly put on the rest of my clothes and shoes.

As I shut my door and ran down the stairs my dad came out of the lounge just as I had my hand on the doorknob "Cassie we need to talk" I turned to see my dad who looked like a mess he had his suit on from yesterday only now it was dirty and crinkled and his eyes were bloodshot red. "What do we need to talk about dad? The fact that you slapped the only family member you have left and now I can't stand to be anywhere near you" I looked at him in disgust "You're never there when I need you and since mom left you've been treating me like it's my fault" My dad was crumbling with every word I said until he was on his knees and even though he hurt me I still loved him I walked forward and put my hand on his shoulder"I still want to be your daughter and have a good relationship with you dad but you need to change and realise that it's all in the past and it's time to look forward" I turned and left the house and quickly getting into Marty's car.

Rocky turned to me "Why did you leave so early? He questioned seeming a little hurt that I had left without telling him. "There were something's I needed to do" looking towards my house where my dad was standing looking at us. Looking forward I saw Marty tighten his jaw and his grip tightened on the steering wheel "Did he hurt you again" I shook my head and just looking out of the window until picked up Milly and Sam.

As we pulled up to I jumped out of the car and got in the front sitting on Rocky's lap he automatically put his arms around me and kissed the back of my neck making me smile to myself, again I could see Marty staring at us and looked at him with my eyebrows raised. I turned to see Sammy open the door for Milly and smiled _he's such a little gentleman just like Rocky _Milly looked really excited to see me and I guess it's because I haven't been myself lately which mean I haven't been to see her much "Hey Cassie! Long time no see" she said half serious half upset, I looked at the floor upset but I guess the truth hurts I smiled at anyway "nice to see you too mils" I turned back to stare out of the window.

I felt a hand on my arm and looked at Clyde "Are you ok Cassie? You seem out of it?" I looked at him for a moment and then shrugged "I'm fine why wouldn't I be?" I looked around to see all of my friends giving me the same worried glance "I said i'm fine!" I shouted irritably "Let's go" I told Marty who gave me a short nod and drove on to George's Nobody spoke in the car and although it was awkward I felt peaceful and why shouldn't I, the sun was out, I was with my friends and I couldn't wait to get on the river and forget about everything. I lay my head back on Rocky's shoulder and soaked up the sun, I felt something roll forward and hit my foot so I leant down to see what it was, I picked up the item and saw it was whisky.

Marty saw what was in my hands and laughed "So that's where I fucking left that" everyone started chuckling except me I was staring at the bottle in some kind of trance, I opened it and started drinking and didn't stop until I couldn't breath. I could see everyone staring at me but I didn't care I looked at the bottle and I had drank a lot, I felt Rocky take the bottle from me and took a swig but then did the bottle up and passed it to Clyde who was giving me the most worried stare I had seen on him "What!" I shouted at him annoyed "I was thirsty, I can drink if I want to" I felt Rocky rub my sides shhing me.

As we pulled up to George I could see him in the window with what looked like a video camera, I hope he wasn't going to be filming this as it wasn't going to end well for him. I turned to Rocky "Do we really have to do this" I whispered, he just nodded at me and kissed me. "What are we doing?" I heard Milly ask quietly and my stomach dropped they hadn't told her what was going to happen I knew she wouldn't have come willingly. Sam just smiled at her like she would mind pulling this prank "You're gonna like this" Milly looked at him confused and looked back out of the window seeing George waving at us from a balcony "Isn't that George Tooney?" she asked innocently "Yeah, he's coming to the river with us" he told her sounding excited, I looked at Marty's smiling face he looked way too excited about all of this, "Why?Sam looked worried now he obviously didn't want to tell her.

Marty turned in his seat to look back at Sam "Sammy, don't you tell your girlfriend nothing?" he said laughing making Milly look more confused and looked to me for answers but I just looked down at my nails. "What's he talking about, Sam?" Clyde turn to Sam with a disappointed look on his face "You should've told her, Sam" I could see George coming out of his house with a happy face on and I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty about what we were going to do but I had to remember what he did to Sam "He's coming. Be nice to him" I told everyone but my stare mainly landed on Marty, he looked at me with and innocent smile. "Millie, it's supposed to be part of the surprise. We..." Sam began and stuttered now he knew he should have told her. George got in to the car and passed Sam a big box wrapped in silver paper "Happy birthday, Sammy" He said really excited which made me wonder why he was so mean to Sam in school if he was being so nice to him now.

"Hi George. Glad you could make it, you know everybody?" Sam said to George being nice which was obviously fake to us but George was oblivious to it. George looked at us all but his eyes stayed on me the longest. "Yeah, sure. Hey, everybody. Hi Cassie" he said shyly blushing a little when he spoke to me, I smiled at him and said hi back whilst everyone else said their hellos. "We ready?" Marty asked but didn't wait for any of us before driving off making an awesome U turn.

We had only been driving for 2 minutes when I heard Milly awkwardly talking to George "What are you doing?" I turned to see George putting his camera inmilly'sface "Making a documentary" he told her bluntly like she should have known that's what he was doing, she looked at me desperate and I sniggered a bit "Of what?" I asked him interested he looked at me and timidly said Of things. Like Sam opening his present. Go ahead and open it." Rocky turn and looked at Sam "Yeah, Sam, go ahead and open it. You already opened all your other presents at home " rocky turned back in his seat and started laughing quietly making me nudge him, I could see Milly looking at me worried and confused so I just shook my head at her. Sam had finally gotten his 'present' "Stream Machine's top of the line I have one at home, so we can have a war sometime. Isn't it excellent?" George seemed happy thinking that him and Sam could hang out again sometime "Oh, yeah, thank you, George" Sam on the other hand did not seem so happy about it although he did look like he appreciated his gift.

I saw Marty look back quickly and I knew he had something to say "You must've blown your whole allowance on that thing, huh, George? How much you bagging a week now, 40? 50? bucks?" Marty was the only one laughing at this point and Clyde gave him a dirty look, I looked at George who was looking a bit upset at what Marty had said "It's very sweet of you, George." George smiled but still looked upset he looked at Sam and seemed to think about what Marty had said "I got it at Funco. You can return it if you want" Sam looked awkward but still tried to spare George's feelings "Oh, no, it's perfect" George seemed to look a lot happier and smiled looking out of the window "Well...it's a beautiful day for a boat trip with some buddies" I could see Marty making rude hand gestures with the neck of the whisky bottle making Me, Rocky and Clyde laugh I took the bottle and drank some more feeling more relaxed I turned and brought the bottle to Rocky's lips and poured him some and then giving him a kiss after he could obviously feel the effects the whisky was having on me and grabbed my bum.

I felt Marty snatch the whisky from me so I looked up and saw him down a lot of him, he looked pissed off. "Hey, Marty? My mom made me sign one of those contracts. It's just, like... You know, I'm not allowed to get in a car with a driver who's been drinking" George sounded and looked really worried but Marty didn't he still looked angry. "Oh, it's cool. My mom gave me permission to drink and drive. You don't have to worry about it" we all smiled knowing Marty was being sarcastic and knew he wasn't going to stop drinking we were used to Marty drink driving.

"Your mom must be pretty stupid to give you permission to drive inebriated" I felt my heart stop when George started talking about Marty's mom knowing Marty hated people talking about his parents but he didn't kick off "No, you're right, George. My mom is pretty stupid. In fact, she's got one of those learning-disability things" George looked shocked like he didn't know what to say "Must be a bad LD. I have an LD, but I should know you're not supposed to drive drunk. I see stuff all backwards and shit. Like, instead of seeing "stop" on a stop sign, I see "pots." My doctor says it's a genetic variation, like for evolution.

So maybe I'm a superior being. The future of the race. Like, if aliens came down and they had a... A language, a super-advanced language that said you had to read this way to that way, instead of that way to this way" I looked at Rocky with wide eyes_ what the fuck have we got ours selfs into._ Rocky just laughed and shook his head I groaned hearing George talk_ who knew this kid would talk so much!_


	3. Boat Ride From Hell

It felt like forever before George stopped talking and I think we all mentally cheered, the kid must have no friends to talk to because I think he just told us his whole life story. I looked to my right and rolled down the window hoping to get some air into the car but even with all the windows down it was so fucking hot _maybe I should move to Alaska, pftt i'm not gonna move to Alaska _I snorted to myself as I pulled off my shirt so I was just in my shorts and swimsuit I heard the boys in the front all wolf whistle and I just gave them the finger and took Marty's cigarette pack from him but it was empty I turned the pack to him "Shit" he pulled into the nearest convince store and we got out, I leant down to see into the car where the kids and Clyde still sat "Be good" I told them sarcastically.

I felt Rocky grab my hand and pull me into the store which _hallelujah_ they had air con, Marty stood by the counter and rang the bell whilst I closed my eyes and basked in the cold air, Well until I heard the one voice I could do without right now "Yo, kidlings" we all turned to see Marty's older brother Kile. I heard Marty groan and I sniggered to myself until I saw the sexist pig that was Jasper walking behind Kile "What are you guys doing here?" Marty asked in annoyance. "Eating mini beef tacos. Finest mini beef tacos in the world here" Kile told us whilst playing with a yo-yo he sounded high again "What, did you steal Mom's car again?" he asked looking out of the window.

I felt Marty stiffen up "Why do you care?" he was always trying to act brave in front of Kile but Kile just shrugged and carried on playing with his yo-yo "I don't give a fuck. Who's the minors?" he said looking into the car again I just hope he doesn't give us any shit especially with Milly around because I wont take any crap from these two today. "It's just my brother and some of his friends" Rocky to them stoically he didn't like Jasper or Kile.

I could see jasper looking out to the car "What are the paddles for?" I turned to him with a smirk on my face "We're going cow spanking" Jasper started laughing "Cow spanking, what's that?".I looked at Marty with and incredulous look on my face "It's like cow tipping, only we spank" Marty told him seriously making me and Rocky laugh, I turn to Marty "Come on, let's just get the smokes and get out of here" Marty turned to the counter "Camels" I felt Kile and Jasper stand closer behind us and whispered "While you are all out cow spanking, Kile and I are gonna go pussy hunting. You wanna come try a real man cas?" I turned round with a smirk on my face and held Rocky's hand "I actually have a real man Jasper but if you'd like one too I'd be happy to give you a number" Rocky and Marty stated laughing and I could see Kile sniggering a little but smacked Marty on the head with his yo-yo when he realised Marty was laughing "Hey, don't get sassy with my boy".

Jasper looked at Marty "You ever been pussy hunting? No, I didn't think so. You know how I knew? Because you gotta have some bait to catch one" he told us grabbing the water wiggler Kile was using to look like a dick. _I feel sick._ "That's great. Grow up, Jasper. Let's go" Rocky grabbed my hand again and laughed seeing the disgusted look on my which didn't move until we got into the car.

Just as we were pulling out we heard something bang on the back of the car and a scream we all jumped out to see Jasper on the floor laughing at us "Jesus, Jasper. Why do you have to...?" I looked at Rocky who seemed like he was having a heart attack and back to jasper who was still laughing "Why do you have to act so retarded?" I shouted at him angrily, Kile came and lifted Jasper of the floor laughing "Have fun cow spanking, boys. Bye Cassie" Jasper said winking at me and blowing kisses, I looked at him disgusted and pissed off "Fuck you" I got back in the car and angrily slammed the door, we drove off in silence and still very much pissed off.

We finally got the road near the lake and parked by the old barn, we all got out and grabbed our stuff except me I put my shirt back on and grabbed the beer making Rocky laugh "Come on beer wench" he said laughing and kissing me when I pouted. "So whose road is this?" I turned to see George had that stupid camera of his on, Marty looked at him if he stupid "It's just a road" I smirked at Marty's bluntness and continued walking down the sandstone road until we came to a gate which everyone started climbing, I waited for Rocky to climb over so I could pass him the beers so I could get over too I felt Marty grab me whilst I was climbing over "Thanks" I smiled at him.

We carried on walking though the trees until Marty started laughing to himself we all turned to see what was so funny "Hey, you guys ever hear about when Rocky, Cassie and I were kicking it out here?" I laughed knowing where this was going and smirked at Rocky "We got some poison oak on our hands" Rocky chuckled and shook his head "This is a disgusting story" he told us smiling "Anyway, so we were out here, and we got some poison oak on our hands. With all the beers we were drinking, well, naturally, we had to take a piss. Now, I don't know if you're hip, Millie, but when a guy pisses, he has to hold his pisser in his hands. Like so-" Marty then held his in front of him like he was peeing, I smacked Marty's arm "MARTY!" I nodded to Milly who was looking at Marty wide eyed "Thanks, Marty" she told him dryly "No, wait, I'm not finished yet. Next morning when we woke up, we both had totally chapped, rash-y nuts" we all started laughing except me I turned to them all "Hey don't laugh your not the one who had to put cream on Rocky's balls for a week" but that only made them laugh more, Rocky put his arm around me and carried on walking "Hey, lucky you didn't run out of toilet paper, have to wipe your butt with your hand" I shivered at the thought but joined in laughing.

We carried on walking for bit, well I say walking I stumbled a bit as I felt the effects of the whiskey I heard Rocky and Marty laugh every time I became unbalanced and felt them both take an arm and helped me. "Ouch, ouch! I just got stung by something" I quickly turned when I heard Milly scream, I walked back over to her and put my hand on her shoulder "You all right?" I asked looking at her in worry, she nodded at me holding her neck "Yeah. You guys just go ahead" I pulled her closer to me and moved her hand before she could say anything but I didn't see a mark on her neck and looked at her funny, she discreetly nodded to Sam and I knew she needed time alone "You sure?" she just nodded so I carried on walking with Marty, Rocky and Clyde. As we walked down the dirt path to the river we were in silence until Clyde said "Seems like George is having a good time" I looked at him and knew he was having second thoughts he just didn't have a mean bone in his body. Rocky turned to Clyde "What are you trying to say, Clyde?" he asked him frustrated because I think he knew how Clyde was feeling too. "Fat boy's gonna get what he's got coming" Marty told us stiffly.

We had finally reached the river "woo" Marty screamed running to the boat, Clyde picked the boat up and turned it over "Let's get her on the river and start paddling" Rocky told us grinning excitedly. Clyde turned to Rocky "Hey, Rock, you wanna go untie us?" Rocky nodded and ran to the tree, I looked over to see Milly giving Sam a look until he ran over to Rocky she looked up to see me looking and just shook her head.

"There any life jackets?" George asked us looking worried, I shook my head looking at the sky "No, I don't think we'll need them" I heard George inhale a shaky breath of air and looked at him suspiciously, I turned to see Marty offering me a smoke I took it I put it between my lips and inhaled, I passed it back to Marty "Come on, sweetheart. Gotta learn to live life on the edge" he said to George handing him the cigarette I had just had, George just looked at it "He doesn't smoke, Marty" Clyde said trying to be helpful but George just gave him a dirty look "Why don't you speak for yourself, faggot?" Clyde looked really sad but tried not to show it "I gotta keep my eye on you" we turned to look at the river when we heard George coughing behind us, we turned to look at him "These are really strong" we just smiled at each other and sat on a boulder. George joined us still coughing "You a...You a cigarette virgin, George?" I asked him smiling when he coughed again "No. No, I'm not. I've smoked before. I... No, I once cold smoked an entire pack of American Spirit Menthols" I turned to look at Marty with a smirk on my face to took his cigarette to stop myself laughing in George's face. "Oh, yeah?" Marty asked rhetorically, George nodded taking small puffs "yeah"

"What if I told you American Spirit doesn't make menthols?" I looked at George to see what he would say but saw Milly and Clyde giving us disappointed looks. "They don't?" he looked troubled like he didn't know what to say "It's OK if you've never smoked before, George. I never have" Milly told George quietly but he gave her a hateful look "Well, I have. All right, I'm not lying. You know, maybe they weren't menthols, but they were definitely American Spirits" I nodded at him like I believed him "Right".

I got up and walked back to the boat and sat next to Milly "i'm sorry they dragged you into this" she looked at me sadly "Why are you a part of this Cassie, I never thought you would do something like this" She told me hurt, I shook my head "This wasn't my idea Milly and trust me I never knew they were going to ask you to come along" She looked up at me through her lashes "Promise?" I looked at her confused "Promise this wasn't your idea and never meant for me to get involved" I grabbed her hand and sighed "I promise you all of that stuff, you know I would die protecting you" I saw her smile and she leant over to hug me and whispered in my ear "I told Sam to call if off" I leant back quickly and looked over to the tree where Rocky, Sam and George were standing.

I stood up and walked over to Marty "Has Rocky said anything to you" he looked at me confused "Like what?" I shook my head obviously either they hadn't told him or the plan wasn't off. He just laughed it off and picked up a rock and skimmed it across the river "Nice" we both turned to see George was standing beside us again I looked over to Rocky who had a pissed off look on his face. "Thank you, George" I turned back to see George filming us on him camera, "Yeah, I once skipped a rock on this lake, it skipped, like, a thousand times" I looked at him with a bored expression his lies are really starting to annoy me.

"Let's get her in the water" Rocky told us in a pissed voice "Aye, aye, capitan" Marty said walking backwards to the boat. I watched Rocky walk to Clyde and whisper something and then I saw Clyde smile. He saw me looking and gave me a big smile, I just looked over to Marty who was pushing the boat into the water "Hey you guys might want to take off your shoes off if you don't want to get them wet" I looked down to my converse and was so glad I decided to wear shorts. I walked to edge of the water and felt someone grab my hand and turned to see Milly smiling at me, I was so glad she didn't hate me. We ran into the river laughing and saw Marty smiling at us, he grabbed me and lifted me into the boat and turned to help Milly in too.

As soon as everyone was in the boat we were off down the river, I sat next to Rocky who put his arm around my shoulders. "Row, two, three, four!" Marty shouted at us, I leant over the side of the boat and splashed water at him laughing. I heard a beep and turned to see George had turned his camera on again "One, two, three, four..." he then start to beat box and dance on the boat making us laugh well except Marty he looked really bored. George then started to rap "Sam loves it, don't you lie, Rocky is a pimp, Clyde is a fag,Yeah, you love it, don't you?" he shouted or 'rapped' into the camera, I could feel Rocky laugh next to me and looked at him "He spit all over the lens" I laughed seeing him doing just that, he was obviously having a good time "Shut up, Rocky, this is what's gonna get me on MTV" I laughed again looking back to see Marty with an annoyed look on his face. "You need go-go dancers" Rocky told him. I heard Marty sigh behind me "OK, now you have to stop" He told George irritated. George turned the camera to himself "Send your donations to George Tooney, Oregon. Love one" He turned the camera off and looked at us "I always thought I was really talented in that sense. You agree, right? Up top. Maybe later" I laughed as Sam denied him a high five_ this is going to be a good day...Hopefully._

I lay back against Rocky's chest and closed my eyes thinking about what I was going to say to my dad when I got home "I'm glad the way this day's turning out. It's a nice day" I opened my and looked at Clyde but he just smiled "Yeah, if nothing else, it's a nice day" I looked at Rocky confused did that mean the plan was off, I looked at marty but he didnt seem to understand either "Can you guys taste how sweet the air is?" Clyde asked us i smiled at him "Smells like cherry blossom" Geroge told us knowingly he did that a lot did he really think we believed anything he boasted about "How do you know what cherry blossoms smell like, George?" Milly asked George intrested but George looked shocked that someone had questioned him "It's obvious. I don't know" The conversation suddenly turned to cherry blossoms now i love flowers as much as the next girl but i was bored and starting to sober up "What do you think, Marty?" i looked at Marty obviously i had missed a lot of this conversation, Marty looked passive "I think I'm bored as fuck.I also think I got some more beer in my pack. Anyone want one?" I smiled at Marty he always brought more beer knowing how much we all need the distraction at this minute "Yeah" Rocky took the beer Marty had passed over "Me too Marty" I asked sweetly as Marty opened the bottle for me.

Marty looked at the kids "You drinking, Sammy?" I raised my eyebrow i hoped he wouldnt offer them anything "Yeah, sure" Sam said looking at me and Rocky first who just nodded at him "Hey, Sammy. If you're really feeling like a party animal...you wanna smoke a birthday doobie?" i growled finally loosing my cool "Sam doesn't smoke weed, Marty" Seeing the look on my face Marty took the spliff out of Sam's face "Cas, chill out" I shook my head angry i looked at clyde who also looked pissed "There's younger people on this trip, Marty" Marty looked at Clyde but didnt give him the same look as he gave me this look was harsh "All right, fuck-face, calm down" We all sat in an awkward silence not knowing what to say to each other "I've been stoned before" George told Marty smiling widely" Marty just nodded looking at me in the corner of his eye "Oh, yeah?" George didn't realise Marty didn't actually care and carried on "Yeah. Yeah. I smoked a whole blunt myself once. Yup. I... I hallucinated that there was...There was a little blue guy on my shoulder, fucking tap , no, I don't smoke weed after that, because, like, my doctor says it stunts your growth. So I'm waiting until I'm 24 because, you know, that's when you stop growing. Have you ever been stoned, Millie?" My head snapped in his direction when he asked o if she had ever smoked weed Milly seeing my face looked at George "Would you please get that out of my face?" but George didn't listen he just asked the question again with the camera still pointed at his face, I grabbed his hand and he jumped in shock "She asked you to get the camera out of her face" i muttered to him dangerously he nodded stupidly and did as i said, I could feel everyone looking at me but my eyes were trained on Milly who just smiled and shook her head i knew that meant she hadn't tried weed and blew out a relieved breath.

"Sure is a beautiful river" George said like he had never been on a river before maybe he hadn't that's why he asked about the life jackets. "Guys look!" Clyde exclaimed pointing into the river we all looked quickly but nothing was there "What?" we all asked Clyde looked disappointed "I thought i saw a snake" we all groaned before sitting back down and continued down the river. George started talking again and i wondered if i was going to survive this boat ride without throwing myself over board Rocky laughed at the look on my face and i smack his arm jokingly I listened to how George had stopped a robbery with a wrestling move he had seen on the TV i could feel my head spinning i needed to get off this boat "Marty" i called out not bothering to look behind me "Yeah" he muttered back "I need to pee" i told him dryly as he chuckled behind me. i wanted off this boat.


	4. Finding Out

When the boat finally stopped at a river bank I quickly walked off pretending not to hear my friends calling for me, I stood next to a tree far away from everyone and breathed out a heavy sigh. Looking through the trees I could see Clyde, Sam, George and Milly sitting on the river bank eating I shook my head confused looking for Rocky and Marty, walking closer to the group I heard two voices behind a group of Rocks I crouched down trying to listen "I want to call it off" there was a small silence "I'm not laughing" I sighed knowing this wouldn't make Marty happy he really had a vendetta against the kid "I'm dead serious" I peered around one of the rocks to see Marty and Rocky sitting opposite each other "Wait a minute first, you get me all juiced up, You make me steal my mom's car. You get me out here on a Saturday when I could be at home watching TV" Rocky snorted looking annoyed "Marty, come on" Marty just ignored him and carried on looking more and more pissed off as he talked "Then you have me steering the fucking Titanic all across the river with a bunch of munchkins who are totally sober and bringing me down, Cassie's the only one buzzed and being any fun!. Now, you mean to tell me we don't even get to do what we came out here for?"

I looked at the ground thinking about how much I had drank and knew it was too much no wonder Rocky was worried about me he always seemed to be worried about me lately ever since mom and Noah left I guess I've kinda been in destructive mode sighing I look back to the boys listening to them once again "OK, maybe I feel a little sorry for him now" I smiled Rocky was too nice sometimes that's exactly why I fell in love with him "Ok, well, then I'm gonna give you two choices: You're either hard as hell and you're yanking my chain, or you're the limpest dick I've ever met in my life" Rocky looked upset at Marty I knew most of the boys in school were scared of Marty but was Rocky? "Everyone wants to call it off" I looked at Marty and flinched at the glare he was giving Rocky "Well, everyone is a vagina!" Rocky flinched a little before looking at Marty "You don't even have a real grudge against him" I smiled softly glad that Rocky was finally standing up for himself against Marty "If you were any kind of a good brother, you wouldn't let Sammy boy get the shit kicked out of him and then stroke the beater-upper's dick all day long" Rocky quickly stood looking pissed off and walked away shouting over his shoulder "Just remember the plan's off"

I stood seeing Marty on his own shouting to Rocky "I just wonder if, when push came to shove, if you'd have my back" I laughed making Marty spin around in surprise "I thought you had your own back and didn't need anybody else?" Marty just looked at me "How much of that did you hear?" I smiled mischievously "Enough to know that it was a waste of time coming here and the plan is off" I said sassily walking passed Marty "But that's just it Cassie the plan isn't off" I whirled around with a raised eyebrow "what are talking about" Marty smiled gravely "Well Rocky can walk around telling everyone the plan is off but I am a man who like to follow through with his plans" I huff crossing my arms "He's just a kid Marty. An overweight kid with learning difficulties who is desperate for friendship" I shouted at him "He's lonely Marty and that's why he acts the way he does you and I both know how that feels" Marty just stays quiet thinking about what I said I scoff and turn to walk off "Rocky says the plan is off, so the plan is off" I told him boldly "Rocky can't always have what he wants!" I heard Marty mutter to me before I'm pulled back and feel something on my lips.

My eyes widen in shock when I realise Marty is kissing me, I pull myself away "What?..What the hell Marty?" I whisper angrily to him but Marty walks forward to me and holds my head in his hands tightly not letting me pull away "I understand you in more ways than he does. I love you Cassie" I stand there shocked as Marty pulls away from me and walks back towards the boat. I shake my head trying to stop it from spinning _I can't do this _Just as I think about getting my life back on track another problem hits me but how long has he been feeling like this and suddenly I remember how protective he's been lately and in the car the yesterday_ I've always cared about you, definitely more than I care for others. I mean I actually like spending time with you"_ I sighed running my hands through my hair and leant against the nearest rock trying to pull myself back together "Cassie?...Cassie?" my head shot up hearing my friends calling for me I take one more deep breathe before walking towards the boat seeing Rocky's face light up when he sees me "Hey we were calling for you, you ok?" he asks me with a look of confusion on his face "I'm fine" I told him shortly walking past him as he grabbed my arm "Cas" I ripped my arm away from him shouting "I said I was fine" I looked around seeing everyone staring at me, I could see Marty smirking at me but worst of all Rocky was looking at me with hurt written all over his face.

I threw my arms around Rocky's neck as he put his around my waist "Hey i'm sorry. I'm just stressed about all of this stuff" I told him nodding to the boat Rocky smiled at me happily and leant in to me "Well don't worry I told everyone the plan was off so I guess now we can relax and spend some time looking at... well trees but still" I laughed at Rocky's attempt to help me relax and knew I genuinely love him and him, me "Ok I guess I could live with that" I said kissing him with a lot more enthusiasm than I had for a while but now I've realised that Rocky is what makes me happy "Wow" Rocky said grinning at me "Come on we have trees to look at" I said pulling him in the direction of the boat passing a pissed off Marty on the way.

We had been back on the water for less than 10 minutes before Marty dropped the anchor in the water we all looked at him confused "Why'd you drop the anchor?" George asked quietly we had all been quiet since we got back on the boat the air felt thicker there was too much tension around "Because I felt like it" Marty told him gruffly smoking I looked at Rocky who seemed like he was on edge too actually the who boat seemed to be on edge "Hey, Sammy. What you say we bust out that Stream Machine" except George he had no idea. Sam looked at Rocky who offered him no guidance "Yeah, OK" George cheered silently looking happy "Clyde, can you give it to me? All right, first, we must charge the propulsion system" George filled the gun with water from the river and then pumped it "And then take aim and run a preliminary test. Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!" Me and Rocky jumped as the water hit us Rocky grabbed the gun "Don't fucking squirt that thing at me again!" I grabbed Rocky's arm and pulled him away from the scared looking George, the boat was once again quiet with an awkward silence.

I looked over to see Marty smirking at me again before throwing his left over cigarette into the river "Hey, what do you guys say we play some Truth or Dare?" he said haughtily knowing exactly what he was doing "Yeah. Yeah, I love that game" George announced happily still not sensing the danger he was in with Marty "OK, then, let's do it" I shook my head angrily "Marty" I warned as Milly spoke up "Lets not. People's feelings always end up hurt when we play this game" she sounded how I felt like we just wanted to forget about all of this and go home "Yeah, she's right." Sam agreed looking between Marty and Rocky "God, Sam and Millie are a couple of little wet pussies, aren't they?" George said laughing but none of us were laughing not even Marty who was looking impatient "Clyde, do you wanna start?" Clyde looked at Marty like he hoped he would have forgot he was there "I don't know. I'm kind of with Millie and Sam on this one" Clyde looked so uncomfortable and I couldn't do anything other than smile at him for sticking up for himself too.

George however bent on impressing us laughed and pointed to Clyde, Milly and Sam "Pussy number one, pussy number two, pussy number three" I felt my eye twitch when he pointed at Milly but she looked at Clyde calmly "Go ahead, Clyde. Start the game" I looked at her unsure if I should stop her or not "OK, then. Rocky, truth or dare?" We all looked at Rocky who looked uncomfortable as he had to start the game "Truth" Clyde smiled at Rocky "All right, I want you to tell us, in 20 words or more, what you were thinking the last time you beat off" Rocky smiled at me and we all laughed at Clyde's question, maybe this game wouldn't be too bad "My Girl" I looked at Rocky and wondered what he fantasizes about when he thinks of me "But that's...That's not even 20 words. It's, like, two" Rocky smirked at George and pulled me closer "OK, I imagined that she followed me into the locker room, went into the stall. She got on her knees. I sat on the toilet. That's 20" I laughed knowing that this wasn't a fantasy it actually has happened once but obviously Rocky thought about it a lot.

Marty coughed getting the attention "All right, Rocky, it's your turn" Rocky looked around the boat before stopping on his little brother "OK, Sammy. Truth or dare?" Sam looked back at us "Dare" me and Rocky "oohed" making Sam smile "I dare you to French kiss Millie for ten seconds" Milly's face turned a cute shade of pink as she looked at me unsure "It's pretty exciting" I winked at her knowing she would do it "It's OK" she nodded turning to Sam "What? It's OK. Wait, did you hear that? It's OK. She wants it" We all ignored George in favour of watching Sam and Milly who just pecked making us all groan "This is what I paid for? Come on! Come on!" Marty grabbed the back off Milly and Sam's heads and pressed them together as we all counted Ten, Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two... we all stopped counting but Sam and Milly carried on making us wolf whistle "Oh, shit. Oh, man. Yo, Rock. Rock, I just had an amazing flash of what your brother and Millie would look like all hot and bothered in bed" I turned to George with a disgusted look on my face as Rocky said "That's gross".

Finally Sam and Milly pulled back I winked at her again as Marty took control again "Sammy, go. It's your turn" Sam looked down thinking as George piped up "Wait, wait, maybe... Maybe we shouldn't call him Sammy any more. Maybe we should call him lover boy." I rolled my eyes in annoyance at George "OK, then. Marty. Truth or dare?" we all looked at Marty in expectancy "Dare" Marty said with a confident grin on his face "All right. I dare you to pull down your pants and your underwear, and show us that famous dick of yours for at least ten seconds" Marty laughed loudly and stood up seeming to be in a better mood than before "Ten seconds. Wow, you are a killer, Sam, All right, I will do it, because I am proud of my boys but if I do, I don't want anyone else whimping out on their dares" Marty said pointing to us as he undid his belt "So let's see the penis. Bring on the penis!" we laughed at George who seemed very eager to see Marty's dick maybe he's a closet gay I mean he has been hanging around Marty a lot today "All right. Milly, close your eyes. Marty doesn't want to go to jail. No cameras. We ready?" I grabbed Milly and put my hand over her eyes as she laughed into my chest.

Just as Marty pulled down his pants Rocky covered my eyes "Hey" I shouted jokingly as Rocky laughed next to me "Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!" I grabbed Rocky's hand off my eyes quickly only to see George squirting his water gun at Marty as he laughed "Oh! OK. OK. All right. You fucking ass hole" Marty said with a small smile as he pulled his pants back on "It was hairy as a chimp!" George said still laughing "Yeah, was it?" everyone was still laughing even Marty "Oh, shit! Oh, shit! It looked like a giant frog" I looked at George who seemed to be having a lot of fun "All right, ass holes. That was pretty funny, douche bag" Marty told George smiling a thing I never thought I would see "At first I thought it was all deformed" The laughter seemed to die down a bit except for George who seemed to not notice we weren't laughing any more "Thank you" Marty replied sarcastically "Because it was just so fucking ugly" Milly pulled herself off me and sat back in her seat obviously sensing the impending argument just like I was "OK. All right. Have you gotten out all your stupid chuckles yet?" Marty asked George impatiently "Have I gotten out all my stupid chuckles? No!" George laughed obnoxiously again it was like he didn't understand the situation like he couldn't tell the rest of us didn't feel the situation was as funny as he did. Marty turned away and picked himself up a beer "All right. Well, whenever you're done, let me know, because it's my turn next." George laughed "Whenever you're done, let me know, because it's my turn next." We all looked to George confused "What are you doing?" "Yeah, well, what are you doing? Stop imitating me. "Stop imitating me." "Enough is enough!" "Enough is enough!"

George laughed as Marty was getting more pissed off "Is that what your dad says to you?" the was a collective gasp and my eyes widened in shock as Marty looked at George like he was going to kill him "You don't know shit about my father. If you ever say anything about my father again, I will kill you. Do you understand?" George stopped laughing and looked at Marty scared "Marty, I... I was just messing around with you" he stuttered trying to apologize "OK, messing boy. I dare you to strip butt naked and jump in the river" I looked at Marty who seemed like he was going to explode I shook my head at him when his eyes found mine "Marty, leave him alone" Clyde calls to him but Marty was too far gone, too angry "I did my dare. Now he does his. Those are the rules, Clyde" I leaned into Rocky who looked just as shocked as I did "Do something" Rocky sat up straight and looked Marty "Marty, why don't you just calm down? OK, the game's over" Marty put his hand in Rocky's face motioning 1 minute "The game'll be over in a minute! Right after fat-ass here takes his clothes off and gets in the bath" George looked upset and started to stutter again "Chill out, Marty, all right? Because you know what? I didn't even pick dare, all right? I pick truth" I closed my eyes knowing that was the worst thing George could have said to Marty right now "You want a truth? OK, I'll give you a truth. The truth is, lard-fart, is that we didn't invite you out here because we've been secretly in love with you all these years"

The air got thick fast none of us talked because none of us knew what to say, Marty stood up angrily "Marty, don't do this" I called to him hoping he would just stop but he just looked at me and carried on "We invited you out here because you smacked Sammy boy right there in the cranium" he told George pointing to the fading marks on Sam's face "Marty, stop" Milly told him looking like she was close to crying I held her hand in mine to calm her down "So we came up with a plan to mess you up" Marty told George laughing as George stood there quietly "Is that true, Sam?" he asked Sam looking devastated "Yeah. But then we changed our minds because we liked you" Sam told him trying to down play the situation but then George turned to me looking heartbroken "Wait, you...? You tricked me?" I just looked at him not sure what to say I felt Rocky rub his hand on my back " Cassie?" George called again as Marty laughed "Of course she tricked you, did you seriously think she would be interested in you!" Marty shouted at George but looked at me sadly _is this how Marty really felt about me? _"Cassie?" I looked at George sadly "I'm sorry George" I whispered wishing none of this had happened.


	5. Can he swim?

George stared at me sadly "I thought.." I put my head down not able to look at him as the guilt ate away at me "Yes, we tricked you and yes all these suckers here changed their minds, but I didn't change mine. I'm a man who likes to follow through with his plans" I looked at Marty angrily his exact words ringing through my head from before. George's face contorted into confusion and anger "What have you been planning?" He asked looking at Sam "We were planning on stripping you, throwing you in the river, then making you run home naked" Sam told him meekly, I sighed knowing this was going to end bad for Sammy knowing he'd be around George everyday at school.

Marty started bouncing his knee with a manic look on his face "Ta daaa!" he called sarcastically shaking his hands in front of him "It's not funny" I growled at him but he didn't take his eyes off George "Oh, it's super-duper funny to me" I felt disgusted at Marty how could he be this evil to a kid he didn't even know. "I'm sorry, George" Sam whispered to George who was now standing "You're not sorry!" George shouted angrily causing me and Milly to jump "I'm sorry" Sam repeated as he looked at his shoes "Is...? Is it even your birthday?" George asked leaning down into Sam's face "No" Sam told him quietly causing George to jump up furious "You're a fucking lying son of a bitch, Sam! All right? And I hope you fucking go to hell!" George shouted foaming at the mouth.

Milly turned around "Don't make things worse, George" George glared at Milly as she spoke to him and I felt my fists tighten knowing he wasn't going to back down "Shut the fuck up, Millie. You fucking stupid JAP cunt!" I felt Rocky hold me tighter as I tried to get up "Sit down, George. You're out of control" Clyde stuttered as he talked to George "Shut the fuck up, Clyde! You faggot! Fucking skinny, butt-munching faggot!" I growled as George shouted at my friends "I hate you, you know that? I really do! Because all you do is fucking prance around school, talking about your fucking faggoty, fairy fathers! I'll tell you what! I don't want to hear about your fucking fathers and how their ass holes work. All right? It makes me sick!" I looked at Clyde who had a tear running down his face as he looked in the opposite direction of George "And I... I fucking hope they fucking die of fag disease! Yeah!" I looked at George and felt nothing but anger I could handle him talking shit to Marty but not Milly and Clyde.

"And... And speaking of dead fathers...I just remembered why bonehead, white-trash, fucking donkey-dick Marty got so fucking freaked when I started talking about his daddy. His Neanderthal drunk dad put a gun in his mouth and splattered his brains all over the wall" The boat shifted as Marty jumped up as George shouted "You know, I almost forgot that my mom told me that. She said, 'His daddy splattered his brains all over the wall.' I thought it was sad at first but, now, I like it. His daddy splattered his brains all over the wall. His daddy splattered his brains" I felt my head spinning as George shouted and was shouted back in return "Shut up, George" George got louder the more everyone started arguing with him, he was like a broken record that couldn't stop.

"All over the wall."

"His daddy splattered his brains all over the wall!"

"All over the wall! His daddy splattered his brains"

"All over the wall!"

"All over the wall!"

"Shut the fuck up, George!" I screamed standing up feeling disorientated I felt out of control, I felt Rocky jump up next to me "Shut the fuck up!" We all starting shouting over each other to try and shut George up "Marty!" I turned around when I heard Rocky shout I could see him trying to restrain Marty who was now furiously shouting and trying to get to George, If looks could kill George would be 6 feet under by now. "Stop it!" I shouted out trying to regain control of the situation "Marty! George!" I heard Clyde shout, I grabbed my head in pain as everyone shouted suddenly George stepped forward shouting more I could see Marty moving past Rocky and I turned to George hoping to get to stop shouting and to get him away from Marty "Shut the fuck up!" and I pushed him.

The shouting stopped as soon as George hit the water I gasped seeing him in the river and looked to see Milly looking at me. "Help! Help!" George shouted to us desperately but none of us moved except Marty who leaned out of the boat "That's what happens when you fuck with Martini Blank!" I felt my back hit Rocky who put his hands on my shoulders "Help, help! Please!" I felt sick as we watched him in the water something was wrong but I couldn't figure out what "Martini Blank's friends back him up. That's what friends do, fuck-o." Marty turned to me with a grin on his face but I just looked at him blankly "Help! Help! Help! Help!" George went under the water but bobbed back up as he tried to keep his head above water "That's why you're in the water. Because you've got none" We watched as George splashed in the water _could he swim?"_Help! Fucker, Please help" George went under water but this time he didn't come back up.

I walked to the front of the boat slowly he had to come back up he just had to "Shit, you guys, he's not coming up!" Clyde screamed at us and before I knew it I had jumped into the water searching for the kid. I dived under but couldn't see him I came back up for air seeing my friends look at me desperate before I went back under again, I saw George drifting with his eyes closed and grabbed onto him before pulling him up "Help! Guys, help, now! Rocky!" I shout as I dragged George to the bank coughing from the water getting into my lungs. "Oh, shit" Milly whispered looking at the unmoving George as she started doing CPR "Do you know what you're doing?" Rocky asked as he leant over us "One, two, three, four..." Milly carried on doing compressions on George as Clyde called out for help "Help! Help! Help! Can anyone help us? Help!" I shook my head at him before looking back to Milly who was still doing CPR on George "One, two, three, four. Come on. Wake up. Come on, wake up!" I looked at Milly shocked as she stopped doing compressions on George "No" I shook my head and grabbed George shaking and slapping him "Shit. Wake up, wake up! Wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up! Wake up! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!" I threw his body back on the floor and walked away running my hands through my wet hair.

We sat around in silence which seemed like forever, I was sat against a tree with my head on my knees I couldn't think straight especially with the clunking noise the rocks were making when Milly through them at each other. Clunk...clunk...clunk... with each clunk I felt my irritation grow until I stood up and ran, I kept running until I fell on my knees my chest heaved with heavy breaths, I heard footsteps behind me,and shook as I felt a lone tear run down my face"I wanted to kill him before I threw him over. Now he's dead" I looked at my hands and clenched them into fists angrily, Marty squatted down by me "Maybe this was his time to go. Maybe it was his fate" I looked at him confused as he tried to comfort me "Why would it be his fate?" A voice asked I turned to see Rocky looking at me and Marty "Because everything happens for a reason, Rock. I don't know" Marty told Rocky in unsure voice I knew he felt as lost as us at this point.

Sitting on the ground I felt Rocky pull me to him as I sobbed into his chest I felt Marty join the hug behind me and heard him sigh sadly in my ear, I never thought a prank would go this far, I looked up at the sky it was getting dark I felt Rocky wipe my tears away "Come on we have to go back" I nodded numbly as he held my hand and guided us back to George's body. We all stood over George he had gone a blue color I looked up to see Milly had been crying and a rush of guilt hit me I killed George and caused Milly pain. My heart raced as I tried to figure out how my life had become so difficult so...fucked up.

We tried to think of what to do but I knew what I had done I had killed George this was all my fault I needed to pay for what I had done "What if we say we were playing Truth or Dare, and then we dared him to jump into the river, and he did and he drowned" we all looked at Sam when he piped up but none of us answered him "What the hell are you doing?" I looked over to see Marty in the water fishing around for something "Looking for his fucking video camera. If it gets found, then everybody finds out what we did." I laughed spitefully "Everyone's gonna find out what we did, What I did, regardless if the video camera gets found, Marty" Everyone looked at me as I blamed myself for this Rocky rubbed my back a little "Not if we don't want them to" I looked at Marty seriously could we really get away with this?

"Are you joking? Look, this was a prank that went wrong. We come completely clean" My head shot over to Clyde when he spoke up, Marty stalked out of the water and closer to Clyde "No one's got a ton of sympathy for guys who throw fat kids in the river. All right? If we turn ourselves in, we're all screwed. Do you really want Cassie going to prison Rock because I don't!" I looked at Marty shaking would I really go to prison for this? I turned to Rocky who was looking at me sadly "What do you thinks gonna happen, Marty? Superman's gonna fly around Earth and turn back time?" Sam asked Marty sarcastically "No. I don't think Superman's going to turn back time. Think we gotta bury the body" I could see the rest looking at Marty like he was crazy all except me, My head was still spinning I felt like I wasn't myself. I listened to Clyde and Marty talk but I didn't really feel present.

"Rocky, if we bury the body, it's gonna look like we did it on purpose" I zoned back into the present when I heard Rocky's name and looked at him but he just shrugged not knowing what to do with the situation "Going to jail and getting raped every night for the rest of your cute, little, fucking lives is nuts" I shuddered at the thought "I think you're nuts. So that's it? We're just gonna pretend like we're all innocent" Marty got into Clyde's face pushing him to the ground, Rocky pushed past us to get to Clyde but Marty pushed him to the ground "If you've got a better idea, then you better spit it out because no one else does" I saw Marty look past Clyde to me with a concerned face like he realised I was having a mental breakdown but he just gripped Clyde's collar tighter "Marty, come on" Milly said trying to get in between the two boys, that's what I should be doing right now like I usually did but right now I was fighting off the feeling of self destruction.

Marty jumped off Clyde and sat on the ground next to him looking at us "You always gotta go with the best idea you've got. Otherwise you're just left laying around not knowing what to do" I looked at Rocky who was still sitting on the ground looking shocked "We have to do something, we can't stay here all night" I whispered making them all look at me but my eyes were still on Rocky who just nodded silently. Walking back over to George I sighed and put my arm around Milly's shoulder who hugged herself into me in return "Ok, Let's do this" I told them sounding stronger than I felt. Rocky and Marty lifted George and carried him deeper into the trees as Sam, Clyde, Milly and I followed.

After putting George back on the ground Marty walked over to a tree and sat down we all followed and sat in a circle Marty, Rocky, Clyde, Sam, Milly and Me. I looked to my left to see Marty twiddling George's penknife around in his hands "You took that?" I asked him in disbelief as the other turned to look in our direction, Marty sighed "Time to make a pact" He took the knife and cut his finger and passed the knife to Rocky who cut his finger and handed it to Clyde, Clyde looked at us with his hands shaking but cut his finger anyway and then handed the knife to Sam who cut his finger with less emotion than all of the boys and then passed it to Milly who just stared at the knife "I can't do it. It's not safe" In the big sister part of my mind I was proud of her but right now I wasn't in that state of mind and all I could do was stare at the knife that was passed to me. I could only think of how sharp it was and the pain I felt last time a knife had cut through my skin, I looked up to see Rocky staring at me hard I subconsciously hid my wrist where the faint white scars lay.

Marty jumped up next to me when he realised I wasn't doing the cut "It's a big joke anyway" he marched over by George's body and started clawing at the dirt, The other boys followed I just sat and stared as they all dug quickly none of them spoke, none of them looked at each other, It was silent except for the sound of heavy breathing and dirt being moved "I think that's deep enough" I felt Milly sit next to me as I carved into the tree bark 'SNAP' I looked at her blankly as she looked back at me I felt her hand on my back as she tried to comfort me, I looked back to the tree stump to see a snail sliding it's way across the stump I looked back to Milly who was also looking at the snail intently until I drove the knife into it making her scream.

The boys looked over to us and started to walk over but I jumped up and sat over by the water again, I watched Sam hug Milly as Marty, Clyde and Rocky looked at the tree stump and then over to me. They started whispering to each other before going back to George's body, I watched ,as they grabbed him like he was road kill and dumped him the hole covering him back up with dirt and leaves. They all sat on the ground breathing heavily and covered in dirt, Sam sat by Milly who was crying into his shoulder I looked at her and felt nothing like an empty feeling.

Marty walked past me and dragged the boat out to the river again and dropped the anchor, I watched as Milly, Sam and Clyde stood by the mound of dirt before getting on the boat with their oars. Rocky and Marty crouched by me "Hey Cas?" I looked at Rocky when he called me but didn't make any signs of talking "Hey babe, Were gonna get back on the boat now" I nodded slowly but didn't move I just started at the mound of dirt where I knew the boy I had killed was, I felt Marty and Rocky grab me gently and pull me up "It's all going to be ok" Marty whispered to me I nodded again as they lifted me onto the boat, Rocky pulled me onto him as the rest rowed the boat. I stared up at the dark sky "Everything's going to be ok now"


	6. Fixing the mask

As the boat drifted nearer to land Marty and Rocky jumped out pulling me with them looking behind us I saw Clyde struggling to get the boat back to land "Hey you guys want to help us?" he shouted to us as we walked away. Standing on the road Marty held his hand out waiting for something to stop "Are you okay?" Rocky whispered to me as he rubbed his hands up and down my cold arms I just nodded not trusting my own voice "Guys!" looking past Rocky I saw a truck had pulled over and Marty had jumped into the trailer "come on" Rocky whispered nudging me in Marty's direction.

Climbing into the trailer I shook both boys away from me and sat on my own wrapping my arms around my legs and put my head on my knees sighing I could feel Marty and Rocky staring at me but I didn't care. I shivered as the wind whipped around us, feeling a hand on my shoulder I nudged it off "Cassie?" I just shook my head not wanting to talk to them I just wanted everything to go away, I felt broken.

The truck stopped suddenly and I looked up to see the car still parked by the red barn and jumped off the truck "Thanks" Marty called to the truck driver as he pulled off, I jumped into the car and again pulled my knees up to my chest and just stared out of the windscreen as Marty and Rocky took their seats next to me. Driving back to the boat we picked up Milly, Clyde and Sam "You could have helped us back there" Clyde muttered to Marty who just ignored him, We all sat silently on the way back home except for the little sobs that would come from Milly every now and then.

Finally we had made it to Milly's house we all sat in silence not knowing what to say or do, Marty cleared his throat "First thing we gotta do when we get back is deal with Jasper and my brother" I scoffed those two would love to see us in trouble "How?" Marty looked at me shocked like he didn't expect me to talk "Gotta make sure they forget they ever saw George with us" I frowned shaking my head in disbelief that was the worst plan ever "What the fuck you gonna do? Huh? Hit them over the head with a rock, hope they get amnesia?" I started feeling angry again, angry at Marty, Angry at George but mostly angry at myself.

Marty sighed and turned to look at everyone "All right, this is the way it's gonna work. We drop everybody off at their houses. Everybody's gonna sit tight until I go make sure everything's "copathetic" with Kile and Jasper" Marty turned around and gripped the wheel "The word's copacetic, Marty" Milly muttered grabbing her bag and getting out of the car "Millie ...mum's the word" Marty called to her, I could see her looking in my direction but I couldn't bring myself to look at her "Bye Cassie" I nodded and felt tears well up in my eyes.

Pulling up to my house I looked up to see some of the lights on and sighed knowing my night was probably about to get a whole lot worse pulling myself together I jumped over Rocky and walked away as the boys shouted my name behind me, ignoring them I walked into my house it was eerily quite "Cassie?" I heard my dad ask quietly walking over to me "Cassie? What's wrong?" I looked at my dad sadly before throwing myself into his arms sobbing "Cassie I can't help you if you don't tell me..." I cut my dad off screaming "You can't help me I did something bad, I think I killed him" I threw myself back into my dad crying as we sunk to the floor.

My dad just held me in his arms sighing he would know what to do he was my dad "Right I want you to go upstairs get in the bath and leave your clothes outside the door. I'll fix this but you need to tell me everything" Nodding I picked myself up and walked up to my bathroom to run a bath taking off my clothes I left them outside my door just like dad said. Sitting myself in the bath I scrubbed my skin it hurt but it helped I felt better, sighing I sat back and slid under the water hoping to forget I lay there until I couldn't breathe maybe It would be better If I was gone I thought uncaring "Cassie, are you ok?" I heard from my bedroom door I sprung up from the water gasping for air "I'm fine" looking at the clock on the radio I saw I'd been in the bath longer than I thought.

Getting out of the bath I pulled a towel around myself and walked over to my vanity and sat down looking at my reflection I looked terrible I didn't look pretty, confidant or happy, I had lost my mask the mask I had created when mom left was now broken but I was determined to fix it. Pulling out my make up and hairdryer I got to work fixing my face and hair, looking at myself again I saw my natural curly hair and made up face I felt better with the mask on again. Finding my clothes I quickly pulled on a pair of jeans, converse, stripy top and hoodie suddenly a knock on my bedroom door made me jump "Yeah?" looking at the door I gave a small smile seeing my dad walk in he looked tired.

Dad sat on my bed and patted the space next to him sighing "So from the start please" I looked at him seriously wondering if telling him was a good idea but as I started telling him I couldn't stop, I told him about going to the water fall after our fight. I told him about the plan I didn't want to be apart of, drinking too much, Marty kissing me and finally I told him about the boat ride and trying to save George after I had pushed him in the river. As I was telling my dad all of this I could see his expression change with every word until the story was finished and I had nothing else to say.

"Cassie" he sighed looking older than his age "I'm sorry" I looked at him confused and a little disturbed I had just told him everything and he's apologizing, seeing my face he carried on "I'm sorry for everything me and you're mother put you through and I'm sorry about Noah. If I had paid you more attention maybe this wouldn't have happen" I looked at my hands and shook my head in protest "It still would have happened I'm a bad person" Dad looked at me shocked "You are not a bad person this is not your fault" he told me trying to seem confident "So what are we going to do?" I asked quietly looking at him through my eyelashes , dad sat silent before looking at me "I'm not sure" I sighed sadly as he stood "I need time to think, this doesn't look good" he kissed the top of my head before leaving the room.

Raking my hand through my hair I knew what I had to do I had to go find Marty and Rocky we need a plan better than what we have and I need to tell them my dad knows, he could help us he is the best lawyer around well before his marriage broke down that is. Opening my window I climbed out and down the drainpipe before jumping to the ground and running off before dad saw. I need to find Rocky and Marty and I need to find them now I thought running off in the direction of Rocky's house.


End file.
